Black Desert Proves To Be An Interesting MMO With Great Graphics

An upcoming MMO from Pearl Abyss (awesome name, by the way) is in the works that aims to marry the open-world exploration of games like Fallen Earth and Mortal Online with the theme park-esque aesthetics of high-concept fantasy games like World of Warcraft and Blade & Soul. The name of this game? Black Desert.

In actuality, Pearl Abyss should have simply named the game after their company... that would have been properly righteous. I don't know if Black Desert will actually resonate with gamers or allow it to hit an expanded demographic outside of the typical Korean-MMO grinders.

Anyway, as the 14 minute video above showcases, the game is a visually stunning masterpiece. The graphics fidelity is just off the charts in some cases, as well as the spot-on animations and combat system. I must confess that I'm deeply drawn to the way the archer's combat mechanics work – giving gamers the opportunity to fast-fire in dynamic, movie-like fashion is something that many other games seem to miss out on when allowing players to take control of archers.

A lot of the other aspects of the game seem to basically resemble the new-age combat mechanics employed by other games such as Monster Hunter Online, RaiderZ and Tera, where non-targeting gameplay is what fuels the action and actual player-skill is what accounts for success or failure and not just some arbitrary numerical calculation attached to a player's stats.

One of the things I liked most about the video was the sort of realized character presentations, giving gamers avatars that had strikingly realistic features (for the shoulders on up anyway). Some gamers noted, however, that due to the game's amazing graphics you probably won't be able to customize the look of the character's much, and sadly I would probably have to concur given that games that have had amazing graphics in the past usually lack a really in-depth character creation feature, such as Vindictus, Blade & Soul and Bless to name but a few.

In some regards this game looks like it's all CG, and I'm curious how well they'll be able to flesh out an actual MMO community – especially if the character customization is as limited as it appears in the video.

Nevertheless, the graphics look phenomenal, the combat looks superb and if there's a good enough hook besides grinding involved, this game might do all right. You can check out some pictures below or visit the official website to not really learn anything more about the game.